A Different Path
by chraezanty1317
Summary: What if Lily Evans had been sorted into Slytherin, the house every Gryffindor hates and that in return resents them and Muggle-borns? What would happen to her and James, or her friendship with Snape? The story starts with the Sorting. Set in the Marauder Era and rated T just because I can't ever decide on ratings.
1. Chapter 1: Sorting

**Author's Note: I guess there are a lot of stories like these out there, but I just thought it might be fun to attempt to write one. Also, in the course of reading HP I always was angry because Slytherin was made out to be the "eeeeeeevil and dark house" with practically no redeeming qualities (I'm not counting Snape as of Deathly Hallows). I always thought the most amazing and interesting houses were Ravenclaw and Slytherin! Feel free to tell me if this sucked or not. Sorry this is so short, I'll try to have longer future chapters. Anyway, let's do this!**

_Chapter One_

"Evans, Lily!", Minerva McGonagall called.

The young girl with dark red hair and brilliant green eyes stood up from one of many tables of the Great Hall and walked to the stool, trying her hardest not to show how nervous she was. She sat down and the Sorting Hat was dropped on her head - after about a minute of silence it finally answered the unspoken question. "_Slytherin!"_

Looking down at the other first years, Lily spotted Severus, who was flashing a rare grin at her which she returned with a small smile. On the opposite side of the room she saw the boys she met on the Hogwarts Express, James Potter and Sirius Black (the latter had been sorted into Gryffindor and she remembered that he had indeed broken his family's tradition, just like he'd predicted he might. Some part of her brain wondered what his relatives would say about that - would they write him angry letters or worse?). James looked surprised and - though that was probably imagination - disappointed. _What is it about my house that causes people to detest its students?_, she wondered. Then she pushed that thought aside; my _house. I'm a witch, and I'm proud of it._

She walked to her table and was greeted by many enthusiastic two-years, who still remembered their Sorting very clearly. Soon she was deeply immersed in a conversation with fellow first-year Celia Danes, a cheery blonde with dark blue eyes that were huge and reflected the candles' light around them so they looked like glittering Christmas bulbs. Together they watched as Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew joined the Gryffindors and when it was time for Severus's Sorting, the Hat announced Slytherin as his house.

Lily watched her best friend coming over to her after being congratulated by a tall blond Prefect (he was called Lucius Malfoy, Celia told her). "Hey, Sev."

"Hey.", he replied, visibly happy and excited. She had not ever seen him in a mood that good. He sat down and after two other new students (Hufflepuffs) were sorted, the feast could officially begin. Everyone gasped with delight as tons of various kinds of food appeared on their tables out of thin air. "This is amazing!", Celia squealed, and Lily had to agree.

Hogwarts' witches and wizards started stuffing themselves with delicious meals as if they had not eaten for at least three weeks. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Sirius Black and James Potter throwing pizza at each other and struggling not to choke on the pudding they still had in their mouths, they were laughing so much. She smirked - at least she hadn't ended her day with having to wash pepperoni and tuna out of her hair.

When it was time for them to go into their dorm rooms (she thought the fact that their common room was in the dungeons was kind of cool, at least they would not have to walk through the whole castle to get to Potions) she said goodbye to Severus and lay down on her back the second she reached her bed. She remained like that, staring at the ceiling that seemed to have the actual night sky on it and arms crossed behind her head. She listened to her roommates' chatter - Celia and girls called Alecto Carrow, Electra Saine and Kassandra Hylls.

It had been an exhausting day and had anyone asked her if it had been the best day of her life till then she would have answered with yes.


	2. Chapter 2: Survival of the Purest

_Chapter Two:_

Lily remembered that when she had still been oblivious to the fact that she was a witch and had read Muggle book series, their authors had often mentioned characters not remembering where they were when they woke up at first. That was not the case with her - she knew exactly where she was and felt like this was already her home, even though she still wished she could spend days talking to her sister Tuney like before. _Now that she says I am a freak it will not ever happe-_

"Liiiiily!", shrieked a high voice, bringing her back to reality. Lily groaned and pulled her pillow over her head. Her muffled voice was still audible when she pretended to be in a bad mood: "Celia, I'm tired. Please try not to damage my eardrums, at least."

"Don't be so grumpy! We're off to breakfast in a few minutes and today we will be handed our lessons schedule!" At that, the redhead crawled out from under her pillow and sheets. "That's great! I can't wait to learn everything about magic and Hogwarts."

Electra, who was just coming out of the bathroom, grinned. "Planning to get best marks of the year already?" She started combing her black hair which reached her lower back.

Lily shrugged. "Nah, I won't worry about that now. Let's go!"

After putting on their robes in an incredibly short amount of time the Slytherin girls set off for the Great Hall. On their way there they ran into Severus Snape. "Morning!", Lily called and he grinned. "Hey."

Alecto started talking about her dislike of writing long letters to her parents because her hand always hurt after scribbling on (she assured them) literally countless inches of parchment. Lily said: "I understand. I've never had to write any letters since we always had the telephone..."

Her roommates, as if on cue, all snapped their heads towards her and looked at her in a way the red-haired girl thought was pretty weird. "So, you're Half-Blood?", Kassandra asked her cautiously. Lily was about to open her mouth when they had arrived at their table and the subject was dropped because everyone was way too hungry to focus on anyone's heritage.

She wanted to go to the Head of Slytherin to ask if she could get her schedule, but Severus held her back. "Can I talk to you?"

She shrugged. "Sure. What about?" He hesitated. "You know I said that it does not matter that you're-", he lowered his voice ever so slightly, "Muggle-born." When he saw her expression, he quickly added, "I didn't lie, 'cause it doesn't matter to _me._ But there are some, not all of course, Slytherins that think differently. They say there should only be pure-bloods in this house-"

"That's ridiculous! They do not have the right to judge me based on something like that! Also, _you _are not pure-blood either.", she said, her eyes were blazing with emotion. Severus smiled a little. "You are right. I guess having half-bloods in Slytherin is inevitable after so much time has passed since our school's founding. Still, I just wanna warn you... some can be very mean - Mudbloods, they call people like you. They grudgingly accept witches and wizards of my heritage, because I have magical blood in my veins, so I officially 'deserve' to go here - that's what they'd tell someone who asked. You, on the other hand... you get the idea."

Lily sighed. "What am I supposed to do? Lie?" Severus was clearly uncomfortable. "I don't know... maybe just don't mention it."

"Thanks, anyway." "No problem."

Just then, Professor Slughorn announced they were to get their schedules now. On her way to him Lily ran into other fellow students she knew only by name or reputation: Alecto's brother Amycus (one could definitely see they were related), fifth-year Lucius Malfoy and the beautiful third-year Bellatrix Black, who hardly paid them more attention than she would have slugs. Then, as if the universe had told itself "how about _that _for good measure", she nearly got her eye stabbed out by Sirius Black's wand, whose owner was fooling around with it like he knew all spells already. To his credit, he immediately apologized. Lily looked at him, curious. "Are you a relative of Bellatrix's?", she asked, recognizing the same pitch black hair, good looks and proud and confident posture.

He snorted. "It's tragic. She's not only crazy but also feels superior to every living creature on this planet. I yet have to meet the person that is a match for her. If I ever do, I'll probably thank him for making her his servant or something." Lily frowned and studied her schedule. "First lesson: Potions. You?" "Too. Hey!", Sirius called to the rest of his friends who all seemed to have the same class as her. Suddenly Severus turned up beside her. "Shall we go?"

James Potter sneered. "How ya doing, Snivellus?"

Lily turned on her heel, glaring at the Gryffindor over her shoulder, and soon she and Severus arrived in their classroom. To her delight Celia had occupied the cauldron next to hers. After about five minutes, Professor Slughorn entered the room, greeted everyone and explained the use and ingredients of Wiggenweld Potion, which greatly interested Lily but obviously less so James and Sirius, who ended up with detention due to secretly mixing ingredients at random into their cauldrons - that was, until it started smoking and Professor Slughorn made whatever they had brewed together disappear with a flick of his wand.

Divination was a fun challenge for Lily, but the young girl had problems taking that subject seriously - if everyone could tell his future from his hand, how come they still worried about ending up alone when the lines showed they'd lead a happily married life with many children (at least according to their textbook)?

Kassandra, her partner in Divination, asked her when their teacher was busy instructing two boys: "You never got to answer my question, by the way. Are you a Half-Blood?" Lily drew a deep breath. _I'm just going to tell her. She is nice, she will not insult me. _"My father is a Muggle and-" "Your mom's the witch? Cool! I'm pureblood, so I always feel pretty stupid when I don't understand a single word of what Muggles say. You certainly know more, but then again, why should I bother with that unnecessary stuff anyway? It's so insignificant. Are we witches or what?", she laughed, finishing her sentence spoken with a matter-of-fact tone of voice, obviously taking at least one parent with magical blood for granted. Lily was somehow relieved, because looking back on it, she did not think she could have brought herself to tell her roommate the whole truth about her. Naturally, she could not possibly avoid her dilemma forever.

**Author's Note: Thanks for reading! By the way, I'm mostly making this timeline for the 'real' HP characters up - for example, I don't know when exactly Bellatrix was at Hogwarts, so I just made her be a few years older than Lily. This chapter was not really all that exciting yet, I know. Still hope you enjoyed it^^**


	3. Chapter 3: Your Everyday Life Part I

_Chapter Three_

Lily had managed to become Horace Slughorn's undisputable favorite pupil in a matter of two days, showing outstanding skill at Potions, always eager to learn, never complaining about having to write long essays as homework - already there was talk about her joining the infamous Slug Club, which earned her awed "whoaaaa"s from her classmates and contemptous snorts from Bellatrix Black. Once she overheard a comment of the latter: "The little Half-Blood? She's a _first-year_, for hell's sake! Ah, whatever, hope she has fun living her thirty seconds of fame." Somehow Kassandra's assumption of Lily's heritage had been passed on to practically every Slytherin who knew her, which disturbed and yet calmed Lily - at least she wouldn't have to answer questions about the subject or lie, for the time being.

The only one as talented as Lily at Potions was Severus. James and Sirius still mocked him every chance they got - only now they were accompanied Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, although the latter two always stood in the background and hardly ever participated in the actual bullying. She frequently saw the group of Gryffindors in her lessons and it did not take long for her to see that at least 75% of their group consisted of highly intelligent and good students. Poor Peter really tried his best, but even Remus tutoring him almost every day for two hours in the library (Lily saw them studying when she herself was doing the same about three times a week or when she was searching for information concerning her homework) couldn't make his nervousness and uncertainty disappear. He somehow never managed marks better than average or good, even though he honestly wanted to. Watching the four of them, she could see they were best of friends and she hoped for the sake of Gryffindor's house points that Remus and Peter would have a positive influence on James and Sirius instead of the other way around.

Another subject that she enjoyed very much was Defence Against the Dark Arts. They did not do much theory - most of their lessons were filled with students being paired up and practising spells. Her partner was Remus, who she liked talking to and who was as skilled at casting Expelliarmus among other charms and jinxes as her, which was fortunate. Severus, on the other hand, was stuck with a tiny Hufflepuff who seemed to need immense concentration just to hold his wand in the right position for a duel. Lily got to hear her best friend ranting about the "insufferable, incompetent idiot" for hours on end, which at times proved pretty amusing.

Flying was not a strong suit of the red-haired girl, much to her irritation, since it lead to Sirius and James (who, she had to grudgingly admit, was brilliant himself; their Professor had already predicted him to become a famous Quidditch player) laughing at her. Naturally they didn't mean much by it.

Days and weeks went by and all in all, Lily was very happy. She occasionally got letters from her parents, asking how she was, what she had learned, if she had found friends and they always included a line or two about how Petunia sadly did not have time to write her sister but would soon - an excuse so bad the young girl got tired of reading it after the third time it was used, but she was touched at how her parents didn't want their children to be fighting and insulting each other.

Once, she was supposed to write an essay on one of Hogwart's founders for History of Magic. She spent days trying to decide which one she should choose and couldn't make up her mind. Electra thought her behavior was odd. "_I'll_ look up Salazar Slytherin's life. It's really not that big a deal, anyway. Why not just take the one your house has been named after?" Alecto's opinion was similiar. "It may be useful to you in the future at the very least. Also, I'd rather write about a Parselmouth than the boring Hufflepuff witch that, like, spent her life making up cooking recipes and being sickenly nice and sweet to everybody. Where's the fun in that?" Lily finally let herself be convinced (she had been very close to choosing Gryffindor) - although she didn't understand or support her roommate's disdain for the other House.

Severus went to the library with her to work on his own essay. After they had searched every single book for mentions of Slytherin and put their gathered information down on their parchment, he was still not satisfied. Suddenly he grinned. "I have an idea. Be right back." He disappeared for a couple of minutes during which Lily double-checked her work for any spelling or grammar errors. Her best friend appeared again soon and mentioned for her to follow him. She did, but immediately stopped dead in her tracks when she saw they were standing in front of the locked door to the restricted section. "Are you insane? We can't go in there!" Severus ignored her and pulled out his wand, muttering a few incantations. The door opened and he entered the restricted section, leading her by the hand. "Don't worry, we won't get caught. I asked Lucius and Mulciber to distract Madam Pince, so she won't see us. I just want to search for more books, okay? The little information we got will hardly impress our teacher; if we find out just a bit more interesting details, however..." He grabbed a tattered, dark blue book that probably had as many pages as the world had wizards and went back to the desk with his essay, leaving Lily standing there. The curiosity got the better of her and she studied the shelves around her more closely - _The Unforgivable Curses, Parseltongue, About Werwolves and other Creatures of the Night_...

She turned away, dutifully locked the section's door and returned to her best friend, who was furiously scribbling, his nose nearly touching his essay. She peeked at the page he had gone to - the letters were incredibly small and it seemed like their ink had changed color depending on what topic they had. In the right bottom corner of page 1370 she saw a drawing of a gold necklace. It had a medallion with an hourglass inside a ring - it looked like someone had tampered with it, as there were many dents in it. It seemed so vivid, she found herself touching the picture just to find her hand not meeting paper, but cold metal. In awe, she held up the actual necklace. "How...?!", she asked no one in particular.

Severus looked at her, then at the book. "It must be some kind of Concealing Charm... someone must have wanted to hide this and did not come back to retrieve it yet." Lily smiled. "It's very pretty and has a very long chain..." Testing it, she put it around both hers and his neck. By the time he opened his mouth to say, "This is probably not a good idea" she had already rotated the medallion with the hourglass many times, playing with it like a child.

By the time she payed attention to her surroundings again, Hogwart's library had disappeared and been replaced by the Great Hall. Frowning and very confused, she looked around and was dragged to behind thick red curtains. Severus was evidently panicking. "Look, Lily, this is really bad. I just figured out what your necklace is, I've heard about it-" They were interrupted by voices coming from the entrance, drawing nearer to them by the second.

"Good morning, Rowena. Have you seen Salazar?"

"Sadly not. I suppose we must wait for him." The strangers passed them and went on towards the place where normally teachers and the Headmaster sat.

Lily risked a glance beyond the curtain that lasted for a mere second. It was enough, though - she recognized the two people as Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor.

**To be continued**...


	4. Chapter 4: Your Everyday life Part II

_Chapter Four_

"We came here because of a Time-Turner that was probably messed around with. We shouldn't have been able to go back in time as far as we did. Normally one turn means you travel back one hour, this one must transfer one a year or a decade into the past.", Severus hissed into Lily's ear. "We cannot let anyone see us."

She closed her eyes and cursed herself. She didn't know what a Time-Turner was, of course, except for its use which was already hinted at with the name: time travel. She should have known better than to snatch a random item from a restricted section's book. _I was so stupid. There could easily have been a curse on it._

"Can we get back with it?", she whispered.

"I think so.", her best friend answered and smiled weakly at her. "I guess now I don't feel like ever going into the restricted Section again." She smiled back and turned back to listening to the Founders - she still couldn't quite believe it was all real and not a dream - talking. "_This _has wicked potential to be included in an essay, huh?", she murmured, almost as if to herself.

Steps from the entrance echoed from the stone walls. "Salazar! How generous of you to join us!", Gryffindor called, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Greetings to you all. My view of our situation has not changed since our last meeting - teaching muggle-borns would be a wrong decision and no one will convince me otherwise.", he stated matter-of-factly. His dry tone of voice allowed no objection.

"That is unfortunate. I was under the impression we all had the common goal to teach great wizards and witches of future generations.", a woman responded.

"We still do. The difference between you and me, Helga, is our understanding of what a great witch or wizard _is_." His voice was full of contempt. _It's a wonder he spends so much time with them if he despises almost all._, Lily mused.

"Why don't we divide our students into four seperate houses? That way we could each choose children with qualities we value most and be relatively content without being reduced to bickering like five-year-olds.", Ravenclaw interrupted, gradually becoming impatient, before Hufflepuff and Slytherin could get into a serious fight.

"That seems reasonable - thank you, Rowena.", Gryffindor said, obviously tired of Salazar's obsession with blood purity.

"Slytherin students should be ambitious, cunning and determined.", the Founder of said house quickly established. He had obviously thought about his favorite type of wizards and witches to teach before.

"And _pure-blood._", added Gryffindor mockingly, which Salazar merely acknowledged with a curt nodd. "Gryffindor students will be courageous and have nerve and chivalry." He already sounded very proud of his house.

"I'm already looking forward to see my loyal, hard-working witches and wizards with a sense of justice." Helga chirped.

"Wit beyong measure is man's greatest treasure. My house values intelligence, wit, creativity and a willingness to learn.", Rowena announced. Lily could hear she was happy with the situation - at least the Founders were getting along now.

"Now that's settled then. If you'll excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I shall prepare our school for eventual future attacks." Lily could swear she felt the confusion of the other Founders at this. Gryffindor explained, "The statues were constructed to defend Hogwarts should it ever be attacked. I am merely taking precautions. We must make sure of our students' savety." Everyone voiced their agreement. "I will help you, Godric.", Slytherin said, the chair he had been sitting on scraping over the floor as he stood up.

"Much obliged.", he replied stiffly, surprised at the offer. The two wizards left the Hall.

"The two of them used to be _such _great friends. Look at them now. It's quite sad.", Hufflepuff whispered to the other remaining witch after a few minutes of silence.

"People grow apart, dear Helga. It would not be wise for the Gryffindor and Slytherin students to harbour the same animosity their Founders had for each other, but... ah well." Ravenclaw sighed. "We'll see what the future brings. We cannot help but deal with the inevitable."

Severus nudged Lily. "We should get back.", he whispered.

She nodded. "Of course... how many times do I have to turn the hourglass-medallion?"

He frowned, calculating, and told her a number. The red-haired girl rotated the Time-Turner and prayed they would end up in the library of their own time again.

When they did, she immediately removed the golden chain around their neck and stowed the 'necklace' into her robe pocket. "We have to give this to Dumbledore, or at least a teacher." Severus didn't protest. They brought the book from the restricted section back to where it belonged and had just finished their essays in a hurry when Madam Pince went by their desk. "You two are still here? How nice to know there are still first-years who work hard for good marks." The librarian smiled and the Slytherins set off for the next corridor, embarassed.

They came to the conclusion that searching the whole castle for their Headmaster would not only be time-consuming but useless - after all, he could be sitting in his office the whole day and they didn't know the password. While they were discussing matters they encountered the two most popular Gryffindor first-years: James Potter and Sirius Black. Lily groaned and was about to go off into the opposite direction when Remus Lupin appeared and asked, "Hi, Lily. What are you up to?"

"We're actually looking for Dumbledore." He raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised. "Oh, okay. I can help you searching for him."

"Hey, what about your promise to look over my Charms homework?", Sirius complained, looking offended. Remus sighed, eyeing James and Severus warily as they mutely glared at each other with pure hatred and were seconds away from drawing their wands and jinxing each other. "It won't take all that long. Also, your definition of 'look over' is us sitting at the library, you loudly informing me of how bored you are while I'm left to correct your mistakes and remind you that you have only written half as much as was demanded by Flitwick."

Their conversation was interrupted by a deep voice behind them. "Miss Evans, how can I help you?"

Lily turned around and felt relief surge through her. "Professor Dumbledore! Me and Severus, well, found something in a book that concerns us..."

He seemed to sense what she was talking about and turned to the Gryffindors. "I'd advise you to run along to your Divination class now - Professor Trelawney will surely miss you.", he said with a friendly smile.

Sirius whispered "We got Divination now? Why did they invent this subject, anyway? It's so useless." to James when Remus dragged them to the Astronomy Tower before they could even consider skipping that class.

Lily grinned at the sight, but became serious again as she focused on their Headmaster. She told him she had found this in the page of a library book. Leaving out the piece of information about it being a book of the restricted section and their own little time-travel extravaganza made her feel uncomfortable and she was still certain Dumbledore somehow knew about it either way, but she couldn't bring herself to admit to having broken school rules. It went against everything she had planned.

She handed the Time-Turner over to Dumbledore, who inspected it for a moment, cast a spell on it that made the dents disappear and put it in his pocket. Little did she know he would later on use it to help students manage their everyday life at school, one of them being her son's best friend, Hermione Granger. "Thank you, Miss Evans and Mr. Snape. I hope your future reading will turn out to be less complicated. I personally would have greatly enjoyed meeting a Founder..." He winked at them and left them standing in the corridor.

Severus was watching her. "Do you think it was worth it, getting that book?"

Lily shrugged. "It definitely was an experience to remember, and I don't ever want to repeat it if I can help it."

Both got an 'O' in their History of Magic essay.

No one could honestly say that life at Hogwarts was uneventful, and that was a fairly good thing.

**Author's Note: Hi, everyone, thanks for reading! Do you think the whole Time-Turner idea was too over-the-top? I think I messed up the Founders' conversation, but alas, I'm not the genius called J. K. Rowling. I'm also not sure it's actually possible to travel to an era where one wasn't even born yet, but I just always wondered what the Founders were like, so I decided to try this out. I'm already dying to write about the school years when the Marauders have completed their Map and Sirius, James and Peter are Animagi!**


	5. Chapter 5: One down, Six to go

_Chapter F__ive_

"I'm going to _die_.", Celia announced dramatically before collapsing into the nearest armchair.

"No, you're really not.", Lily repeated for what seemed like the hundreth time, amused. They were currently in the middle of the period of time where the first-year exams were written and everyone was stressed out to a certain degree. Her friend had just come back from her Herbology exam and was fully convinced that she was going to get a 'T'. Lily herself was doing quite well, as was expected of her - although not only she spent day and night studying as if her life depended on it. She regularly spotted James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin in the library, who were seriously concentrating on their work and not causing any trouble for once (according to Gryffindor Alice they had already set up some kind of detention record and were constantly pranking students and teachers alike).

Severus, while learning dates and spells like everybody else, seemed much more interested in the tree that had been planted the year they had arrived at Hogwarts - the Whomping Willow. It was huge and very violent - older students often dared each other to go as near to it as possible before one of the thick branches hit them and they ended up in the hospital wing with several broken bones. Lily remembered that the magical tree had been mentioned in Dumbledore's welcoming speech, but couldn't quite understand her best friend's fascination for it. "You expecting some kind of conspiracy, Sev?", she asked him one day. He simply grinned and went back to copying names of plants onto a roll of parchment so he would not need to look them all up later in a book.

Around the end of the month Lily noticed that Remus Lupin looked like he was not feeling well. When she spoke to him in Defence Against The Dark Arts he assured her there was nothing wrong, although she seriously doubted that was true - he looked as if me might faint any second. She reluctantly decided not to inform a teacher; Remus would hardly thank her, she did not want to drag him to the Hospital Wing by force and he was, after all, as intelligent as herself and therefore perfectly capable to take care of himself. She noticed that his friends were eyeing him with worried expressions too, though they didn't say anything out loud.

The next day Lupin did not attend any classes - Lily heard he had the flu and would presumably remain with Madam Pomfrey for a few days. She was also aware of certain three other Gryffindors' complaints, as she spent the last half of Transfiguration listening to them (she had given up on concentrating about ten minutes before). "She won't even let him have any visitors? That sucks! Who will make sure we actually do our homework now?", James Potter sulked.

"Who will pay attention in class and take notes that will keep us all from failing our exams?", Sirius chimed in. "I miss him. When we will get detention because of you guys again I won't have any sensible person to talk to.", Peter commented which led the only Black to ever get sorted into Gryffindor to shout "Hey!" Lily chuckled in spite of herself.

At lunch she was confronted with rather depressing rumours. The newest edition of _The Daily Prophet _reported deaths of many Muggle-Born wizards, all supposedly caused by the same wizard. His name wasn't mentioned, but he was supposed to be an incredibly powerful wizard with followers - Death Eaters (a shiver ran down Lily's spine) - who planned to kill all wizards who were not pureblood. He was said to have gone to Hogwarts and was generally known as You-Know-Who, while others called him the Dark Lord. While the red-haired girl hoped these were just unfortunate accidents having nothing to do with him, she was disgusted by some whispers from the older Slytherins. She only caught snippets of hushed conversations - "-good riddance, Mudbloods and Blood Traitors the lot of them-", "-rule the world!", "-replace Dumbledore, the old fool-", "Join him!" - but the little she heard was more than enough to make her feel ill until she felt ready to join Remus in the Hospital Wing. Severus had severely underestimated the hate her House seemed to have towards people of her heritage. Bellatrix Black especially seemed to be enthusiastic more than anything else at the news, her dark eyes gleaming with excitement. Lily promised herself not to cross her path again unless it was inevitable. The slightly psychotic light in the young woman's eyes greatly unnerved the witch.

It might have been because of all the paranoid talk of the You-Know-Who against most of the wizarding world war, but when a fourth-year entered their bedroom at midnight to tell them (in an over-the-top-trying-to-be-frightening voice) horror stories about how she had heard howls all the way from the Shrieking Shack, Lily was actually scared for a bit before helping Electra to throw the older student out so they could get a good night's sleep.

Before she had realized it, the end of her first school year was approaching and she found herself wistfully packing her trunk. Her roommates were doing the same, listening to music that was turned up so loud they were soon holding up signs _á la _"Where the hell is my hairbrush? Mom'll kill me if I've lost it" because they simply were not able to hear each other. After they had all collapsed on their beds the witches turned out the music and lights. Lily thought they had all gone to sleep when she heard Celia whisper, "Hey, sleeping yet, Lily? I think the good-looking Gryffindor guy has a crush on you." Lily responded, more out of confusion than anything else, "What? Who do you mean? And anyway, we're all twelve or eleven. It would be ridiculous to think about dating already."

"Hm", Celia huffed. "James Potter. And he at least seems to think you're interesting - he keeps watching you in Charms. And History of Magic. And Defence Against the Dark Arts. And-" Ignoring her friend's chatter, Lily pulled a pillow over her head and pushed any thoughts concerning boys away.

The train ride from Hogwarts to Platform 9 ¾ was great fun that didn't last nearly as long as it could have to Lily's liking. Spending time with Alecto, Electra, Celia and Severus (who had come over to the girls' compartment for the last hour from his friends' one) led time to magically pass very fast. She promised to write all of them letters until they'd see each other on the train again and laughed at Celia's asking if she'd keep in contact with four infamous Gryffindors.

Remus had completely recovered and briefly appeared to say hi to the red-haired girl. When asked what his friends were up to, he rolled his eyes as if to say 'you don't wanna know, so please don't ask'. He was grinning and was soon dragged back to his compartment - James Potter had turned up, flashed a smile at Lily ("All right, Evans?"), glared at Severus and disappeared again in less than a minute.

She and her best friend walked out of King's Cross to be greeted by Lily's overjoyed parents who dropped Severus off at his house, missing the silent interaction between the children that passed through their eyes. _You'll be fine. - Yeah, hopefully no one of my family will be there. - Stop it. I'll see you tomorrow?_

The witch shot a smile at him which he weakly returned before disappearing in his house, clearly tense.

Lily was greeted by her sister at her house's front door. "Tuney-", the witch began, but the other girl ignored her and stalked off in the opposite direction.

"Home, sweet home.", the red-haired girl murmured with Hogwarts in mind.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this chapter.**

**To TinaMarie05: Thank you^^ Yes, I hope I will do the 'big reveal' justice.**

**To Xivida: Thank you for your review! I don't mind you being picky, you're right, after all^^ I followed your advice about the Time Turner looking a bit different, I'm grateful for the suggestion. Greetings!**

**To kittyhawk09: Thank you very much! **

**I really appreciate every feedback etc. I get. Have a nice day, everyone.**


	6. Chapter 6: Summer Break and Pride

_**Chapter Six**_

The weather on Lily's first day of summer break was excellent – the sun shining on the red-haired girl's face was not yet hot enough for her to flee under the big tree's shadow where she had first seen Severus. There were only a few clouds in the clear blue sky and the light breeze carried birds' songs to her to the playground as she was half-heartedly swinging back and forth. She closed her eyes. _I wish I was at Hogwarts right now._

The young witch had left the house about half an hour ago. Petunia had invited all of her friends (there was a lot of them) over to their house to have a sleepover party and after three hours of hearing "So, your sister really goes to a weirdo school where they learn magic? Like, making coins disappear?" and other variations of such comments, the Slytherin had had enough and gone to the place she had nearly forgotten about since she had last visited it, which had been before she even got her Hogwarts letter. Quickly getting bored of being at the playground on her own, she decided to seek out her best friend. To her disappointment Severus didn't seem to be at home when she went there; also, she didn't especially want to run across his father as he tended to become annoyed or angry without reason. Finally, she had returned to the swings.

Just then, she spotted a Snowy Owl and grinned widely. She had become so accostumed to the wizards's and witches' postmen it did not cross her mind for a second that it might just be an ordinary bird in search for food. When the animal flew closer, she saw that she had not been wrong: it was holding a letter in its beak. Taking a moment to wonder how it was that they always found the addressees no matter where they were, she caught the envelope and opened it, patting the owl's head. She skimmed across the words written in tiny, messy script that she recognized as Celia's at once.

_Dear Lily,_

_How are you? It must be hell, stuck in your house for weeks with your b̶i̶t̶c̶h̶y̶ jealous sister. I persuaded my parents to let Electra, Kassandra and Alecto spend the break at my place. The only thing that would make it even more perfect would be you here! We all miss you. Especially Electra, because she can't get her Charms homework done to save her life and woud kill to be as talented in that subject as you. Now, enough with my fawning over your skills. _

_The situation regarding those Muggle murders is getting worse. Bodies seem to be piling up and Kassandra, ever suspicious, wonders if the Ministry doesn't cover up most of them up as it is. There is still no solid lead as to who is killing those poor Muggle-borns but the rumours about You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters won't stop. It's scary._

Lily stopped reading the letter and flipped through the pages of the _Daily Prophet_ only to find a more detailed account of what her friend had written her. Sad and desperate for something to keep her mind off the horrific events, she continued with the letter.

_Have you heard from the Gryffindors by any chance? _The witch knew immediately that she could only mean James, Sirius, Remus and Peter by that. _Hope you write back soon. Love, Celia _

The girl with the dark red hair smiled weakly. It was reassuring to know she had people who watched her back and didn't insult her everytime they set eyes on her, unlike others.

The first stars had appeared on the night sky. Lily - now in her room - was writing Celia back, expressing thanks for the information among other things, and contemplating if she should also drop a line or two to Remus - he _had _sort of become her friend after all, even if his friends were bullies - when she heard a sound. Looking up, she spotted a Barn Owl sitting calmly on her window sill as if she had all the time in the world to return to her owner. Its huge eyes had (as far as that was possible with animals) a proud expression in them, like the bird was offended that the witch had not noticed it earlier. "Hey, there.", Lily murmured, accepting the envelope in its beak and seeing as the letter was from Alecto, she gave the owl her own addressed to Celia. "Bring this to a friend of Ally's. She's spending the summer with her anyway.", the red-haired girl told her roommate's pet, which had flown away as soon as she had stopped talking.

Curious, Lily concentrated on the letter in her hands. The handwriting was wide and elegant but the ink was slurred in many places - the note's author had probably been in a hurry to send it and not let it dry properly.

_Lily,_

_I got great news! You won't have to spend Christmas at your parents' house this year. This means, no Petunia for you and a great tutor for all of us (hell yeah, we're totally gonna take advantage of your intelligence. Sorry for that). I managed to get you an invitation to my family's annual Christmas Party. It literally took hours for my mom to agree and she still wants to know what your magical parent's surname is (you should have seen her face when I told her you were Half-Blood, it was hilarious, though not for her). What is your magical parent's surname, anyway? _

_See you soon. Another Hogwarts school year. I don't know if I'll survive Trelawney. I should leave you all detailed instructions what my funeral has to be like, because this woman and her subject will be the death of me. Love, Alecto_

Sure enough, the second piece of paper was an official invitation to the Carrows' Christmas Party with gorgeous patterns in the margins. Lily smiled.

The next day she saw Severus again and the topic of Christmas came up. When the witch told her best friend about Alecto's plan he grimaced like she had forced him to lick James Potter's boots.

"What is it?", she asked, confused and concerned.

"Well, it's complicated... you know, the whole Slytherin-hates-Muggle-borns-issue you have is gonna get worse now. Has Carrow asked for your made up magical ancestor's family tree yet?"

"Don't be ridiculous." She bowed her head in embarassment so he could not see her blush. "I could always say I don't have time or something."

"You _could_, alright. But think about it. Many pureblood families are insanely proud and only invite selected witches and wizards to their gatherings. If you wound their pride by ditching them, they'd not be exactly kind to you. Although you could have it worse - the Blacks, for example, do not even tolerate all purebloods (blood traitors and all that), and Half-Bloods? Forget it, they'd laugh in your face while shutting the door into your face. So the Carrows are definitely not the worst of the lot. Still..."

"You're saying Ally will abandon me sooner or later anyway, as soon as she finds out I'm a Muggle-born.", she whispered.

Knowing her as he did, he knew she wouldn't appreciate him sugarcoating anything. He nodded.

Just then, they heard Petunia's high shrieks from a distance. "Aren't you supposed to be packing your trunk so you can crawl back to your freak school?"

"Everything is just _great." _The sarcasm in her voice made her sound way more bitter than she should have been at such a young age.

Arriving at Platform 9¾ she hugged all of her roommates, by now used to her sister's cold glares as she and her parents were standing a few yards behind the witch. Goodbyes exchanged and soon sitting in an apartment, Lily was feeling good again. She waved a greeting at Remus when she noticed him in the crowd of people. She caught herself eyeing Alecto warily from time to time and it made her sad. Was their friendship really not strong enough to overcome stupid pureblood ideals?

After a few hours spent with eating Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (Electra would always remember that soap didn't taste as good as it smelled and Celia was happy she mostly got caramel) until they were sure they'd be sick, the now second-years arrived at their destination.

The beauty of Hogwart's castle bathed in candlelight and filled with students, teachers and ghosts alike still did not fail to take Lily's breath away. _Finally home._

**Author's Note: Yay for a (kind of) long chapter with no plot to speak of *rolls eyes* Hope you still enjoyed reading it. I need to figure out a good way to bring the Marauders into Lily's everyday life not only involving them playing pranks. Hm...**

**And I hope the whole pureblood-party-pride thing makes sense. Greetings!**


	7. Chapter 7: Highs and Falls

**_Chapter Seven: Highs and Falls_**

Second year started with everyone discussing the results of their first-year exams. It had everything Muggles could possibly wish for in a third-rate soap opera - tears, drama, happiness and hateful gossip travelling around.

"Okay, I'm going to open my letter with my marks now.", Celia breathed as the Slytherins were finished with their breakfast, looking like she would faint any moment. "That wasn't the first thing you did when you received it?! _I_ wouldn't have been able to stand the suspense.", Lily said, eyes wide. She did not get back a single exam that was rated lower than an E and was flattered and insulted at the same time at how everyone acted like she got good grades for granted - it wasn't like she did not have to work for it, after all, quite the opposite was the case.

Less than a minute later the envelope had been ripped open and her friend was tightly shutting her eyes to keep from crying. "Damn Herbology.", she whispered. She had actually managed to get a T. Before Lily could start a rant about how the exams were not crucial until their OWLs and NEWTs, James Potter and Sirius Black burst into the Great Hall, laughing and out of breath as they had evidently been running. Nearly dreading the answer, the red-haired witched asked them: "What have you been up to now?"

James rolled his eyes. "Keep your hair on, Evans, and don't go all prefect on me with your 'don't you dare have Gryffindor losing house points'-tone of voice. You're not even in my house! By the way, even if we'd lose some points, we'd win them back with no problem - we wouldn't want Slytherin to win the House Cup instead of us."

"We prepared a little surprise for Filch and his bloody annoying cat.", Sirius interrupted and made a show of mock-ominously announcing, "If a higher power wills it, History of Magic will be cancelled, because it might be impossible to have classes in that corridor for a day..."

"- or two.", James finished, looking pleased with himself.

Curiosity got the better of everyone in hearing range and they all got up to see whatever the troublemakers had come up with to make Filch's and the teachers' life hell now, even the older Slytherins who despised - as far as Lily knew - practically every human being not in the year of their house. As she was dragged along by Celia, who was now distracted from her exam results and smiling again, Lily heard James saying something to Remus that sounded like, "as the mastermind of most of our pranks, you know you love it as much as we do!"

The students arrived at the corridor where History of Magic was usually held, four infamous Gryffindors in tow. At first, everything seemed normal and Lily was just beginning to wonder if Potter and Black had been messing with them, as Severus - not having heard their conversation and totally oblivious - took a few steps onto the stony floor. Peter squeaked in excitement while Remus muttered under his breath, "McGonagall's gonna have our heads.". James and Sirius, on the other hand, had mastered the art of acting and looked innocent and sweet like angels, their faces blank.

Lily watched as the floor turned into bright pink quicksand. Severus flailed about in a panic, cursing loudly. Madame Sprout, who had been incidentally strolling around the castle, came running to see what was happening. She got out her wand in time to cast a spell at the quicksand before the Slytherin was swallowed whole. That did not necessarily make the situation better, though - now the floor was covered with slimy green jelly. Both the food and the pink quicksand had the characteristic of sticking to anything it touched, which was unfortunate for Severus, who was now desperately trying to exit the corridor without falling flat on his face. He looked unintentionally hilarious with his partly pink hair and multi-colored robes. The green jelly covered his embarrassed and enraged blushing.

Most of the bystanders had walked away at that time, assuming that their class would indeed be cancelled and too lazy or indifferent to care about what else was happening. Others were laughing their heads off, to which Lily would have reacted with shouting under normal circumstances. Instead, she got out her own wand and, hoping not to make the situation any worse, shouted: "_Evanesco_!" As it was, the dessert did not vanish like it would have normally, merely morphed into solid ice. Severus did manage to reach the end of the corridor, not without slipping on the ice before, however. Remus was shifting around, clearly uncomfortable; Peter did not seem to know what to do with himself and settled for giggling hysterically; Sirius and James avoided eye contact with their Herbology professor and were furiously whispering to each other. Lily wanted to rush to her best friend's side at once, but Madam Sprout stopped her and took him to the Hospital Wing at once ("Just in case. You could visit him later."). Any bystanders who had remained in front of the corridor, including Lily's friends ("Sorry, have to... ehm.. do homework... or something."), quickly walked away and the tension between the five remaining students could have been cut with a knife.

The second-year turned to the Gryffindors and demonstrated the most frightening death glare they would ever experience - she looked positively murderous. "You think this is _funny_?!"

Remus raised his hands as a sign of surrender. "We didn't think it would turn out quite like that."

Peter started chewing on his fingernails. Sirius just shrugged carelessly. "So what if we humiliated ol' Snivelly in public? Doesn't really need us to do that if ya think about it. Have you _seen _his hair?", James said. Less than a second later his cheek was burning; Lily had slapped him. "Ow, that hurt, Evans-" The witch was already briskly walking into the opposite direction and long gone before he had finished the sentence. Sirius clapped him on the back. "Tough luck, mate. Hate to spoil the process of realizing your dream girl hates your guts, but we better get outta here before McGonagall hears of this."

The following days Lily did all but spit in their faces every time she crossed the path of the four Gryffindors. Severus was already planning payback and still licking his wounds after having to run around with pink and green splashes on his face for a day - the red-haired girl had to admit, for second-years, they had done an impressive job with the magic, so that Madam Pomfrey had to spent hours and hours trying to figure out how to get rid of the enchanted floor's leftovers. It took five hours of all teachers working together for the corridor's floor to be taken care of so no one had to worry about where they were walking anymore. Every time a spell was cast at the floor, it would change into a different substance - chocolate pudding, butter beer, a swamp, you name it. Finally, they had found a solution, although Lily did not have the impression that Dumbledore was particularly opposed to the prank itself - she thought she had see him smiling to himself while poor Professor Flitwick was close to pulling out his hair out of frustration.

The four Gryffindors would have gotten away without detention, had not Kassandra dropped a hint or two about the situation to McGonagall. After a thorough series of questions, Peter broke under his teacher's stern gaze and spilled. He and his friends would be threatened with disembowelment and detention by Filch for the rest of their school years every time they as much as seemed to be enjoying themselves and they would be polishing centuries old trophies and goblets by hand until Christmas. Lily had been surprised at Kassandra's behavior and initially wanted to ask her about it, but decided to drop it when one day the topic of The Day We Were Spared From History Of Magic came up and her roommate winked at her, as if to say, 'You're welcome - you know you wouldn't have done it yourself'.

On a pleasantly warm Friday evening, as Lily was learning the phases of the moon by heart for Astronomy, Remus entered the library. Looking over her shoulder to see what she was concentrating on, he chuckled. She felt like she had just missed an inside joke.

"What are you doing here?", she asked sourly.

He ignored her bad mood. "I'm praying that Trelawney's prediction about my impending doom at a young age turns out to be false. She is fully convinced a maniac Creature of the Night will murder me in my sleep." He grinned.

Lily had to laugh in spite of herself. She had missed Remus - the two of them were so similar and he was probably the only one who completely understood why she spent so much time being absorbed in books. "Aw, it's no use being mad at _you_, Remus. I wish I could say the same about certain other people I will not mention by name."

They spent the rest of the night talking and joking around, like they had used to from time to time.

"How come you didn't pull your prank during the exams, anyway?"

"This, coming from you, is quite shocking."

"Well, you can never fully know a person, hm?"

**AN: To everyone who has stuck with me, thank you! I know I'm lousy with updating fast and/or regularly. Hope you felt entertained by this^^ **

**Have no mercy, should you choose to tell me what you think of this story. I want to be a good writer who can deal with being criticised, after all :) Greetings!**


End file.
